Prisca Liberali

Prisca Liberali is an Italian chemist who is a senior group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. Her research takes a systems biology approach to understand the behaviour of multi-cellular systems. She was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal and EMBO Membership in 2022.

Early life and education Liberali was born in Belgium, and grew up between Belgium and Luxembourg. Her parents worked for the European Union. She attended the Sapienza University of Rome, where she studied physical organic chemistry. Her PhD used high-contrast screening and mapping of genetics interactions.

Liberali makes use of a systems biology approach to understand tissue organisation. With this information, Liberali looks to understand cell reprogramming and disease. Her early work considered intestinal organoids and how they develop from stem cells.

In June 2022, Liberali was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal by the European Molecular Biology Organization. She was awarded EMBO Membership in 2022.

Awards and honours 2003 Italian Association for Cancer Research Fellowship 2015 Swiss National Science Foundation Professorship 2017 European Research Council (ERC) starting grant (SymBreakOragnoid) 2019 EMBO Young Investigator 2022 Friedrich Miescher Award 2022 EMBO Gold Medal

Selected publications Her publications include: Population context determines cell-to-cell variability in endocytosis and virus infection Self-organization and symmetry breaking in intestinal organoid development The closure of Pak1-dependent macropinosomes requires the phosphorylation of CtBP1/BARS

Personal life Liberali is married with two children. Her husband is Dutch and her children can speak five languages. She has said that her guiding advice for someone about to start their own laboratory is "Sometimes good ideas need time, and the courage to just try them.".